Idea #11337: Let user find process, related to a visible window from System Monitor

Written by vikrant82 the 20 Jul 08 at 17:45. Category: System.
Related to: Gnome. Status: New

Description

If anyone remembers Windows Task Manager, there's this nice little thing, where user can select a visible window and say, "Go to process".

I think there should be a similar feature in Gnome System Monitor, where user can see visible window and say go to process.

This helps a lot for new users, who can't seem to find the process related to a *hanged* application so that they can kill it. So often these users end up restarting their system.

For e.g. A lot of plugins, applications could merely be python processes in system monitor. One has to tediously move mouse over them for tooltips, to find a culprit process to be able to kill it.

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sf_007 wrote on the 21 Jul 08 at 00:37

Excellent idea!
This would be extremely useful. +10

Vadim P. wrote on the 21 Jul 08 at 02:18

If you just start typing the name of the process, it'll go to it.

This is a feature of many "lists" in gtk - you can do the same in the file browser and many other places.

vikrant82 wrote on the 21 Jul 08 at 05:09

"If you just start typing the name of the process, it'll go to it. "

This is not about finding a process by name. This is about finding a process related to GUI application, i.e. visible application windows on desktop. The name of the processes is not enough for some users to associate it with a windowed application which is currently non-responsive.

Vadim P. wrote on the 21 Jul 08 at 11:40

I see. So something like xkill?

Ubun2ideas wrote on the 23 Jul 08 at 19:30

I think this is related to a comment I made about this idea:
Change "Nice" to "Priority" in System Manager
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/11206/

I more or less suggested when you click on the top left corner of a window (where it currently lists: Minimize, unMaximize, and so on) there could be some sort of slider bar to adjust the apps 'priority' (ie. nice-ness) In your case, we could also give the option of killing that process. In that way 'going to the process' - to paraphrase your words - would not require you leaving your current visual context. What's your feeling on that? Would that solve the issues you are addressing?

I suppose xkill takes care of some of this already, albeit most users probably don't know about it - and the easily dragable gnome pannel applet. Maybe my suggestion of having it 'built in' to the window itself would be more seamless.

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